Carl W. Kenney II is an award winning columnist and novelist. He is committed to engaging readers into a meaningful discussion related to matters that impact faith and society. He grapples with pondering the impact faith has on public space while seeking to understand how public space both hinders and enhances the walk of faith.

Friday, January 30, 2015

I didn’t know where to begin.

The silence denoted something deeper than what my emotions
had to say. I stood and paused long enough for the words to catch up with my feelings.

Ninety people gathered to discuss Selma, the movie that tells the behind
the scene story of the protest against voter repression in Alabama. The people
in the room watched the movie before gathering at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation
of Columbia (UUCC) to share their thoughts about the movie.

“It felt like the same story being
played over again,” I said to begin the discussion.“I left drained because the same thing keeps
happening, over and over again.”

Rev. Molly Houch Gordon, minister
at UUCC discussed learning to listen.She admitted not having answers.She talked about the need to show up.She hoped that would be enough.

“There’s so much pain that I carry with
me every day,” Mary Denson, 21, president of UUCC, said. “There are so many
issues and I don’t know where to start.”

Denson wasn’t alone. Many in the
crowd felt overwhelmed by the burden of fighting a war to end the systems that
separate us from one another.

We all want to embrace hope in
better days.It doesn’t have to end this
way. Right?

Rev. Cassandra Gould, pastor of
Quinn Chapel AME Church in Jefferson City, spoke of the connection between then
and now.Born in Alabama, Gould told the
story of her mother going to jail after protesting the laws that kept her and
others from voting. Gould’s mother was there on that horrific Sunday when police
beat protestors on their way to Montgomery.

Then she talked about the mask she
wore in Ferguson, MO.

“Watching the mask they wore in the
movie connected me to the mask I wore,” she said.“I had to grip the hands of those next to me
to fight back the tears.”

It’s a reminder of how close we are
to the story of Selma.Many of us
remember the images on our black & White televisions.The brutal attacks of protestors shifted the
consciousness of those far removed from the system that denied people the
ability to vote.

What about the color images from
Ferguson? Why aren’t people outraged by the men, women and children tear gassed
in Ferguson? Has time robbed us of our sensitivity, or can we assume the people
in Ferguson deserved to be treated that way?

Can we presuppose that every person
in the crowd should be punished for looting? Was it deserved punishment for
disobeying the law, and, if so, can the same argument be applied to those who
protested in Selma on that bridge?

Has time crippled our compassion
toward people begging to be heard?Have
Americans forgotten how corrupt ways can easily consume those employed to
protect the rights of all Americans?

Could it be that we trick ourselves
into thinking Selma happened a long time ago?If so, we forget that so much of what happened then continues to strangulate
so many today.

People are still working to suppress
the vote of black people.In Missouri,
state legislators are pressing to place a Voter ID law on the ballot for the
2016 election.If approved by voters,
the law will be the most obstructive law regarding voting rights in the nation.

The Republican controlled House
Elections Committee proposed HB30 and HJR1 within days of the Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. holiday, the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery in
Missouri and while people are watching Selma.

Do they care?

Don’t they understand how insulting
it is to press to limit voting rights while people are hurting throughout the
state after the death of Michael Brown?

Do they assume it doesn’t matter?

Or, are they too coldhearted to
understand?

I didn’t know where to start.The emotions were too deep for me to put it
all into words.

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Carl W. Kenney II

Carl was named the best serious columnist of 2011 by the North Carolina Press Association for his work with the News & Observer's community paper The Durham News and in 2016 by the Missouri Press Association for his columns in the Columbia Missourian. He is a columnist with the News & Observer and Co-Executive Producer of "God of the Oppressed" an upcoming documentary film on black liberation theology. He is a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri - School of Journalism and Adjunct Instructor at Duke University, the Center for Documentary Studies. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He furthered his education at Duke University and attained a Master of Divinity. He was named a Fellow in Pastoral Leadership Development at the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 14, 2005. He is a freelance writer with his commentary appearing in The Washington Post, Religious News Services,The Independent Weekly and The Durham Herald-Sun. Carl is the author of two novels: “Preacha’ Man” and the sequel “Backslide”.
He has led congregations in Missouri and North Carolina